About 600 refugees and asylum seekers are refusing to leave the now closed detention centre on Manus Island, saying they are not safe in the community.
Photograph: Social Media/Reuters

There are not enough beds, not enough doctors and no running water or electricity at some of the new accommodation refugees on Manus Island are being coerced to move to, the United Nations refugee agency says.

As the standoff at the Manus detention centre draws into its second week, stores of food, water and medicine inside the centre are dwindling, while a military blockade is stopping further supplies coming in or independent observers accessing the centre.

Food, water and electricity have been cut off for a week – ostensibly for the military to take control of the centre – but also in an effort to coerce people to leave.

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A spokeswoman for the UNHCR, Catherine Stubberfield, said from Manus that the situation for those still in the detention was growing critical, and the alternatives were not sufficient.

“Substantive parts of the planned alternative accommodation are still not ready. If the [approximately] 600 refugees and asylum seekers still in the regional processing centre were to leave it, existing alternative arrangements would not be sufficient for all of them.”

Sir Salamo Injia, the chief justice of the PNG supreme court, denied an application from a refugee to have essential services restored to the detention centre on Tuesday, saying he was satisfied the governments of PNG and Australia had provided alternative accommodation and services “of good standard”.

But the West Lorengau site, to where refugees are being told they must move, is still a building site. Bulldozers and other heavy machinery remain on the site. There is no electricity or water connected, and only four squat toilets and showers are able to be used. There is not yet a comprehensive perimeter fence.

Those who had not yet been recognised as refugees, or whose claims for protection had been refused, are being told they must move to Hillside Haus. That facility is complete and has air-conditioning, the federal government says. But there are fewer beds at Hillside Haus than there are people being told they must move there.

Stubberfield said the lack of services and durable solutions remained the critical issue.

“For refugees and asylum seekers with emergency medical needs, care available on Manus Island is inadequate. The case of an asylum seeker with coronary disease this week underscores how limited local medical facilities are.”

The UNHCR says that beyond the immediate issue of the situation of those still within the regional processing centre, there is little prospect for long-term resettlement in PNG for all but a handful of refugees.

While, over four years, about 30 refugees have resettled in different parts of PNG, the vast majority say they are unsafe in the country. The vaunted “US deal” is making little visible progress on Manus, and has resettled only 22 refugees from the island.

“Long-term solutions outside of Papua New Guinea are now desperately needed,” Stubberfield said.

“The massive decrease in Australian government presence and reduction of essential services does nothing to change Australia’s ongoing responsibility. Unless and until appropriate solutions outside of Papua New Guinea are found for all refugees and asylum seekers, Australia’s obligations for their safety and wellbeing will continue.”

While most Australian service providers have withdrawn from Manus, the Australian government maintains a significant presence on the island, of military, border force and other government personnel. Australia also maintains authority for critical operational decisions, including the ultimate control of critical medical transfers.

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The current detention centre – known as the Manus regional processing centre and where refugees and asylum seekers have been held for more than four years – is on the site of Lombrum military base, about a 40-minute drive from Lorengau town.

Tensions between local people and the refugee population have been growing in recent months, and the history of the detention centre has been marred by violent encounters.

Reza Barati was murdered by guards inside the compound in 2014, this year soldiers shot at refugees inside the compound, and several refugees who have gone outside the compound have been beaten, robbed and attacked with machetes.

Many Manusians in the Lorengau community are sympathetic towards the refugees’ situation and have been trying to assist them. Others, however, resent the imposition of hundreds of young men on their small community. They argue there are not the resources or space in the town to support new people.

And, after initial support, there is a growing sense of disenchantment with Australia’s actions in Manus, and a sense that the richer, more powerful country has simply abandoned people on the island without concern for their, or the local people’s, welfare.

Australia’s immigration and border protection department has rejected much of the testimony of independent observers and refugees themselves, saying: “There has been significant misreporting in recent days about the situation in Manus province.

“Claims that Australia ‘abandoned’ former-residents are not correct however; the department’s staff no longer had authority to remain on the PNG naval base and they departed, along with other service provider personnel and PNG ICSA staff.

“Former residents who choose to stay at the RPC site are doing so fully informed that PNG has provided them with suitable alternatives and that these can be accessed at any time. Any claims to the contrary are simply not true.”